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Those were some of the words onlookers used Wednesday as they made pilgrimages to Encinitas to examine a 10-foot square stained-glass mosaic of a surfing Madonna that mysteriously appeared under a downtown train bridge last week.

Throngs of people came, one group after another, caressing the glass pieces forming Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfboard or snapping cell phone photos of each other in front of the artwork.

The work has gone viral and hundreds of people have posted online comments with news stories about it. A San Diego Union-Tribune online poll shows 95 percent want the mural to stay. “Absolutely beautiful! And at a price that NOBODY could argue with or beat!” one post reads.

The mural was installed Friday by a rogue group dressed as bogus construction workers, according to witnesses. The piece is affixed to the base of a train bridge on Encinitas Boulevard, just east of Highway 101. A local arts supplier estimated the mosaic took 100 hours to build and cost $1,000 in materials.

City officials were quick to call the mosaic, no matter how popular, an unauthorized use of public property that likely will be taken down. No official decision has been made yet, though.

“What a shame, that’s like cutting down a giant redwood tree,” said Mike Bucher, who came from Poway to see the mosaic.

“It’s so Encinitas,” said Linda Conover, who owns Leucadia Pizzeria across the street. “It just makes me feel good when I drive by it every day.”

Encinitas resident Grace Parsons said she’d like the city to keep it in place and protect it with Plexiglas.

But not all feedback has been positive.

Encinitas Councilman Jerome Stocks said he’s heard complaints from Catholics offended by the depiction of a surfing Virgin Mary.

He said leaving the piece on city property would set a bad precedent, and having a religious symbol on public property invites lawsuits. Stocks, a former cartoonist, said he personally likes the piece, but from a policy standpoint it has to go.

“Chances are if we don’t take this down — if someone puts a loving, glowing mosaic of Hitler or Osama Bin Laden across the street — then how could we take that one down?” he said.

Father Brian Corcoran of Saint John Parish called the mosaic inspiring and said he hopes it stays in place. But if it comes down, he’d be glad to have it at his St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church about a mile up Encinitas Boulevard, he said.

“It is a great representation of God being close to us,” he said.

Earlier this week and with help from a 1965 document, the city sorted out that it’s responsible for the bridge support wall — and not the North County Transit District, which owns the track. But the question remains, how to remove the mural without destroying it?